Take a class and let yourself grow

Saxon Holt’s online photo workshop teaches how lighting affects the color and quality of plant photos.
© Saxon Holt

Back in my younger days, a high school friend who purported to read palms told me that I like learning for learning’s sake. She may not have been a palm reader, but she was right about my love of learning.

And, as we head into the New Year, I hope I can inspire some of my readers to take a class, participate in a workshop or hear a lecture about gardening.

One option could be an online garden photography workshop, offered by award-winning photographer Saxon Holt’s Photobotanic.  For $5 a month, chapters are sent on a timed basis, allowing students to read material and finish assignments. Topics include Good Garden Photography, Think Like a Camera, Think Like a Gardener and The Camera and Computer.

Award-winning horticulturist and certified arborist Melinda Myers offers How to Grow Anything: Food Gardening for Everyone (No. 9721) through The Great Courses for $19.95. This DVD program has 12, 30-minute lectures, covering just about everything for growing vegetables, fruits and herbs.

Color in the Garden: Bloom and Beyond is the theme of this year’s Horticulture Symposium, 8 a.m. to 4:30 p.m., Feb. 20, in The Toby at the Indianapolis Museum of Art. Topics covered: A Little Jungle with Irvin Etienne; Summer Rhapsody and No Flowers, No Problem with Kelly Norris; Beauties, Bluebells and Brazen Hussies with Troy Marden; and Spring May Sing but Autumn Rocks with Scott Beuerlein. Fee is $95 for members; $110 for nonmembers and $55 for students. Register by Feb. 1 for a $10 discount.

Probably one of the most popular programs is the daylong 22^nd annual Spring Garden Clinic, Feb. 27 at St. Luke Methodist Church, 100 W. 86^th St. Details are not available yet, so check the Marion County Master Gardeners website.

If you are new to gardening or would just like to learn a bit more, sign up for the City Gardener program, offered by Purdue Extension-Marion County at its offices at the Indiana State Fairgrounds. Offered Thursdays, 6 to 8:30 p.m., March 24 and 31, and April 7, 21, 28 and May 5, City Gardener topics include everything from lawn fertilization, watering, growing food and flowers, insects and other pests. The fee is $5 per 2 ½-hour class, or $20 for all six. For more info: (317) 275-9290.